During the first three seasons of its existence, the Birmingham FA followed the Sheffield Rules.They only adopted the 'London Rules' of the Football Association when Birmingham clubs began to take an interest in the FA Cup. Calthorpe, Aston Villa and Birmingham* entered in 1879.The first representative match between the Sheffield an Birmingham Associations took place in November 1875.

Sheffield Birmingham

E Bowling

(Exchange)

H.H Webster

(Birmingham*)

J.C Clegg

(Wednesday)

G Pears

(Birmingham)

W.E Clegg

(Wednesday)

J.H Cofield

(St George’s)

J Hunter

(Heeley)

F Bill

(Birmingham)

R Gregory

(Hallam)

J Campbell- Orr

(Calthorpe)

W.H Stacey

(Wednesday)

J Carson

(Calthorpe)

W Wilkinson

W.J Nicholls

(St George’s)

J Houseley

(Exchange/ Heeley)

F Barnes

(Birmingham)

Geo. Anthony

(Heeley)

W Hundy

(Aston Unity)

W.H England

(Albion)

J Cartwright

(Aston Villa)

J Morton

(Clay Cross)

J.T Eldridge

(St George’s)

W Orton

(Wednesday/ Exchange)

G. A Quilter

(Birmingham)

Birmingham Daily Post - 22.11.75

The description of Orton's goal is priceless! Interesting to note the existence of the Sheffield Footballers' Accident Society. The insurance scheme was launched in 1867. Players paid in a shilling - if a football injury prevented them from working they received 12 shillings per week.

Only 2000 people were at The Racecourse on 03.03.88 to witness Wales registering an 11-0 win over Ireland. Wales had lost their opening match against England 5-1 and the following week would go down by the same score against Scotland. Things didn't get much better for Ireland- they lost 10-2 against Scotland, making their 5-1 defeat at the hands of England relatively creditable.The scorers for Wales were Jack Doughty (4) Roger Doughty (2) Edmund Howell (2) Job Wilding (2) and William Pryce-Jones

Alfred O. Davies, William Pryce-Jones and E. Gwynne Howell left the field early in order to catch a train with Wales 10-0 up.

Ireland's unfortunate goalkeeper was Cliftonville debutant Jack Clugston. He was omitted for the rest of the season but came back the following year. In total he played 14 internationals, shipping 69 goals.

The 1900 Olympics were a rather protracted affair lasting from May 14th to October 28th. It ran concurrently with L'Exposition de Paris 1900.Association football, making its first appearance, was effectively an exhibition sport. 2 matches were played at The Vélodrome de Vincenneson 20th and 23rd of September. The 'tournament' provides us with an illustration of how misleading the IOC's practise of retrospectively designating medal status to these early tournaments is. At best it creates a false impression of the nature of international competition at the time. At worst it detracts from the achievements of later winners.The original plan had been to hold a series of matches in which 'France' would play against leading club teams from England, Switzerland, Belgium and Germany. Switzerland and Germany did not take up the offer.Great Britain were eventually represented by the rather modest Upton Park. Union des Sociétés Françaises des Sports Athlétiques selected Havre Athletic Club to represent France, but they declined and the reigning Parisian champions Club Français stood in.Similarly Racing Club de Bruxelles declined to represent Belgium. Frank König, a Racing player, was asked by the KBVB to put together a representative side, but he was unable to come up with the goods. The "Fédération Universitaire"were then asked to assemble a team of students. Again this was not a success and newspaper advertisements were placed. eventually a party of 10, including an Englishman (Thornton) and a Dutchman (van Heuckelum) travelled to Paris. Eugène Neefs was in Paris at the time, saving the Belgians the embarrassment of turning out one short. The Belgian XI was: Marcel Leboutte (Spa FC) - René Kelecom (FC Liégois), Ernest Moreau de Melen (FC Liégeois) - Alphonse Renier (Racing Club de Bruxelles), Gustave Pilgrims (Léopold Club de Bruxelles), Eugène Neefs (Sporting Club de Louvain) - Eric Thornton* (Léopold Club de Bruxelles), Hendrik van Heuckelum (Léopold Club de Bruxelles), Hilaire Spanoghe (Skill FC), Marius Delbecque (Skill FC), Lucien Londot (FC Liégeois)As you can see, the players turned out in their club kit.The Belgians were a goal down inside a minute, but came back to lead 2-1 at the interval. The second half was one-way traffic, however, with the France XI eventually winning 6-2.

And on the back of this defeat the record of the IOC lists this scratch team of Belgian students as being Olympic bronze medalists. Hoe belachelijk!

*Thornton would later represent Belgium in 2 internationals (as a goalkeeper).

Arsenal Football Club is open to receive applications for the position of Team Manager. He must be experienced and possess the highest qualifications for the post, both as to the ability and personal character. Gentlemen whose sole ability to build up a good side depends on the payment of heavy and exorbitant transfer fees need not apply.

Meazza's career as a player spanned 20 years (1927-47) and he won 53 international caps between 1930-39.For Internazionale (Ambrosiana) Meazza scored 242 goals in 365 games. He was Capocannoniere on 3 occasions and scored 33 international goals in his 53 appearances, winning 2 World Cups.Let's look at the early phase of Meazza's career:

Season 1927-28: 2 goals on his first team debut age 17. 12 goals in 33 games. Season 1928-29: Top scorer in the national championships with 38 goals in 29 matches. This included 2 5 goal matches and 6 goals in 1 match (against Venezia). Season 1929-30:The first season of Serie A- Capocannoniere with 31 goals. Not bad considering that Milan rejected him as a 14 year old for being undersized, and his first coach at Internazionale's youth side played him as a defender!

Goalkeepers never wear knee pads these days.Modesto Denis represented Paraguay at 5 South American Championships and played in 1 game at the 1930 World Cup.He played his club football with Club Nacional (Asunción), winning the national championsip in 1924 and 1926.

In 1885 Dr John Smith was banned from playing for or against any Scottish club or the Scottish national team because he had played for Corinthians against professionals. In his outings for Corinth he usually employed the pseudonym J. Miller.Up until this point Dr Smith had scored 10 goals in 10 internationals for Scotland and had won the Scottish Cup with Queen's Park. He had also played for Queen's Park in an 'English' FA Cup Final. Following the ban he confined his activities to occasional matches with Corinthians.He also toured the Antipodes with the 1888 British Rugby Union team.

Ned Doig joined Blackburn from Arbroath in 1889. His only appearance for Rovers was a 9-1 win over Notts County. Doig made his debut for Sunderland in September 1890 and went on to make 454 first team competitive appearances for Sunderland, winning 4 First Division Championships.He joined Liverpool (in Division 2) in 1904 and made 53 appearances for the Reds spread over 4 seasons. Ned Doig represented Scotland 5 times over a 16 year period, finishing on the winning side 4 times. Doig was originally an outfield player who took to goalkeeping with Arbroath Reserves as a 17 year old. Concious of his hair loss, Doig was never seen without his cap, which he would fasten under his chin with a piece of string. On Easter Saturday 1900 Doig was involved in a curious incident- Manchester City goalkeeper Charlie Williams appeared to become the first goalkeeper to score from open play in the Football League, his long clearance eluding Doig. Some contemporary reports (there was no dubious goals panel!) say that Doig made the decisive touch, and credit him with an own goal. ENFA credits City inside left Fred Williams with the goal. Sunderland won 3-1.

Defensor Football Club was founded in Punta Carretas , Montevideo in 1913. In 1906 there had been another Punta Carretas club called Defensores de la Huelga. Defensor went from the third to the first division in successive seasons. After a disastrous league season in 1917 saw them finish in bottom place, Defensor ended operations in 1918. The club was revived as Club Atlético Defensor in 1922.

Vivian Woodward's name is forever associated with the remarkable scoring feats of the England Amateur sides of 1906-14 (and their other guise as the double gold medal winning Great Britain Olympic team of 1908 & 1912). He also toured with Football Association squads and featured prominently for various amateur combinations such as English Wanderers and PilgrimsIt is worth recalling that Woodward also scored 29 goals in 23 matches for England between 1903 and 1911.So what of Vivian Woodward in League and Cup football?Woodward joined Spurs in March 1901 and made just 1 Southern League appearance that season:

League

Cup

Season

Club

Games

Goals

Games

Goals

1900-01

Tottenham Hotspur

1

0

5

W

1901-02

2

0

2

R1

1902-03

12

4

4

4

3

R3

1903-04

17

10

2

4

1

R3

1904-05

20

7

5

4

0

R2

1905-06

12

5

5

3

1

R3

1906-07

20

7

6

3

0

R3

1907-08

20

10

7

1

0

R1

1908-09

27

18

2

4

0

R3

1909-10

Chelsea

13

5

19

2

0

R2

1910-11

19

6

3

3

3

SF

1911-12

14

2

2

R2

1912-13

27

10

18

3

1

R2

1913-14

27

4

8

2

R1

1914-15

6

3

19

F

Games

Goals

Football League Div.1

73

22

Football League Div.2

60

26

Southern League

104

42

FA Cup

33

9

Woodward has the distinction of scoring Tottenham Hotspur's first Football League goal.

Chelsea were prepared to play Woodward in the 1915 FA Cup Final (by then he was Lieutenant Woodward of the 17th Middlesex (1st Football Battalion)). Woodward declined to take the place of the in form Bobby Thompson.

A gentleman amateur (an architect and farmer) Woodward was also on the board of directors for Tottenham and Chelsea during his time with the clubs, something we'll probably never see in the Premier League.

His name is Claudio Sapelli and he is transmitting a radio broadcast of the 1922 South American Championship of Nations.

Sapelli was stationed on the roof of the La Platanewspaper offices in Montevideo. As a teletype account of the matches was received from Rio de Janeiro megaphone announcements would be made to the crowd below and Sapelli would relay the updates via radio.

He would have reached a limited audience as there were just 75 radio receivers in the whole of Uruguay.

A 0-0 draw with eventual winners Brazil and a 1-0 defeat to Paraguay saw Uruguay finish in 3rd place.